Imaginary Europes

The symposium entitled “Imaginary Europe” considers literature that constructs imaginary versions of Europe or individual European countries from afar. In the course of the C20th and C21st the idea of Europe has lodged in the imagination of authors across the globe, inspiring some and challenging others. Writers have produced new literary topographies that present Europe beyond the imagery handed down via missionary narratives, travel literature or European classics.

The examination of literary representations of Europe provides a field of study that remains under-explored and significant in its multiplicities of possible critical approaches. In recent criticism approaches have been made to explore the literary representation of migrant experience within Europe, such as Turkish-German, African-Dutch, Franco-Maghreb, Eastern European British, while little attention has been given to constructions of the various imaginary visions of what Europe may be from both within and without. […]